Death sentence dropped against Iranian girl

An Iranian court has dropped a death sentence against a teenager accused of killing a man who allegedly tried to rape her, the teenager’s lawyer said.

Nazanin Fatehi was convicted and sentenced to death more than a year ago after she admitted stabbing one of three men who allegedly tried to rape her and a 16-year-old niece. Fatehi was 17 years old at the time.

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“Five judges reviewed her case, and all of them admitted that what Fatehi did was only self-defense,” one of Fatehi’s lawyers, Mohammad Mostafaei, said Monday. “She just defended herself and her niece to avoid rape.”

Mostafaei said he expected the retrials court would sentence Fatehi – in accordance with Islamic law – to pay blood money to the family of the man.

If there hadn’t been international intervention she would have been executed.